Car-mover



(No model') A. L. DOMINY.

OAR MOVER. No. 394,254. Patented Dec. 11. 1888.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED L. DOMINY, OF EAST BATAVIA, ILLINOIS.

C A R M OV E R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,254, dated December 11, 18888 Application filed August 29, 1888. Serial No. 284,049. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. DOMINY, of East Batavia, in the county of Kane and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful lmprovemei'lts in Car-Movers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the inven- .tion, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Many varieties of car-movers have been made; but generally they are too complicated or have adjusting devices which are likely to get out of order or to require frequent adjust ment. Most of those which are applied directly to a car-wheel are not capable of being used at option at either orboth sides of the car, and when applied are not adapted to move the ear either forward or backward at will without transferring the implement to a wheel at the other end or to the other side of the car.

My invention consists in a very unique, efficient, and simplified constructioi'l, the operative parts (aside from its socket or arm for a handle) being integral or in a single solid piece havin no movable or adjustable parts, and no bolt-holes to weaken it, and nothing to be separated or get lost or disarranged.

Figure 1 shows my car-mover applied to a ear-wheel; Fig. 2, a front view, enlarged, of the car-mover with an iron tube or pipe handle.

A is the shank of the implement, and which may be extended to form a handle, B, integral with it, as shown in Fig. 1; or it may be made with a socket, c, to receive a wooden handle or a handle composed of an iron tube, (1, as shown in 2, and this tube may either enter such socket or it may receive the shank within its bore, all as may be preferred. Integral with this shank are the other peculiar novel features which characterize my invention, and it must here be understood that my invention is designed to readily span the vertical flange of a railroad-car wheel, and by no means to take any hold whatever of the axle, nor any hold whatever of any wheel-spokes, the implement by reason of its special construction being adapted properly to take a hold on the vertical flange only and not to grasp the horizontal rim of a wheel.

The construction is as follows: The shank is preferably.cylindrical. The clamping part of the implement, which is all in one solid piece and integral with its shank, has the form substantially as shown in the drawingsthat is, it has a terminal narrow hook, e, constituting one of its jaws, adapted to take a hold or purchase at the base of the vertical flange of a wheel by means of its edgef, and having also a broad portion, g, constituting its other jaw, about twice the breadth of the hook 9, this hook 0 being so located relatively to the jaw g that a line ex tending through the axis of the shank or through the shank and its handle would pass through the center both of hook e and of jaw g, the latter reaching out laterally beyond such central line, and on each side of it about twice as far as the hook e. This broad jaw g has a concave contour, 71, at its edge, adapting it to the curve of the perimeter of the flange of the wheel, and this edge is rounded uniformly, as shown at i, so that it may adapt itself to different kinds of flanges. Between these parts 6 and g is a curved open space, j, which admits the wheel-flange to permit the parts 6 and g to grip the same. The curvature of this space adapts it for different thickness of flange much better than if the bottom of the space were straight lengthwise of the tool.

It will now be seen that this tool or implement, by reason of the great breadth of its broad jaw g relatively to the narrow breadth of its other or hook jaw, e, and because of the central position of hook-j aw e relatively to jaw g, insures (when the tool is applied to the wheel-flange) that a firm hold shall be taken upon turning the handle either upward or downward, inasmuch as the biting ends 7c of jaw g are both alike and both equally distant from the center of the tool, and either equally can quickly grip the flange. It follows that a person using itcan apply it to that wheel which is nearest to him on either side of the car, whether it be a front or a back wheel and whether on one side or the other of the car, thus avoiding any necessity, as is usually the case, of applying it at one end of the car to move it in one direction and to the other end or to another Wheel to move it in the other direction.

While this tool, like some other car-moving tools, supersedes the use of the usual pinchbar or a crow-bar, yet it docs not, like th'em, often merely lift the wheel from the rail without moving the car forward or backward at all. hen inusing a pinch-bar a car happens to be pushed ahead a little too far, then the pinch-bar must be carried to the other end 'of the car, in order to push the car back again, to get it placed exactly in the right position either to load or unload, and, besides, the heel and point of a pinch-bar must be of steel and kept sharp and well tempered, in order to bite the rail and wheel as it bears on the former in order to lift the latter, and if at all dull it becomes useless, as it must and will then slip almost as freely as if greased. My above-described implement, on the contrary, may be made cheaply of cast iron or of Wrought-iron, malleable iron, or of steel, and it does not require any tempering or finishing.

As before intimated, the shank A may be made with a socket, and the handle serving as a lever may be made of wood or of gaspipe, as preferred.

A practical extended use of this improved tool demonstrates that with it the most heavily-laden car can easily be moved either forward or backward and that it can be used at either end of the car, while its simplicity, cheapness, and efficiency are manifest, and there is really no wear out to it. Aside from these positive values of the construction, it may be said, negatively, that itneeds no auxiliary devices or appliances, being complete in a single piece or casting and having no shifting or sliding parts, no bolt-holes or cavities to weaken it, no bolts, no need for bearing it either on or against the axle or spokes tion, the same consisting of a lever terminating in a narrow hook to grip the interior of the flange, and having a broad portion concaved at its edge to grip the peripheral edge or exterior of the flange, this portion extending laterally and equally in both directions beyond the breadth of the hook.

2. The described car-moving lever implement as made with the broad portion or jaw g, having a rounded and slightly-concaved edge, h, and the terminal hook or jaw e, such hook being materially narrower than the portion 9 and disposed in line centrally of the same, the space between such hook and edge being a continuous unbroken curve, all as set forth.

ALFRED L. DOMINY.

lVitnesses:

L. V. RESSEGIN, O. M. OoNLEY. 

